Patriotism is an emotional phenomenon. For true patriotic feelings, I think, one must have a sense of history and / or geography and / or particular features in its habitat and / or the wider community of the land, aspects of which one must come to love and value ... with which one must identify and feel protective about. The process of identification may not be unlike that we develop for a child or for all that associated with the ( happy ) times of our early years ... it increases from, say, zero to 100, as the child grows, during which period we invest our emotions on it and it leaves experiences and memories of itself with us, such as to extend our own very being and identity.
The value or merit in patriotism might be similar to that in our love for the child or for the tree that accepted or sheltered us when we were young, around which we 'd played and spent our happy hours ! I see the feeling itself as something pure, happy and valuable, unless it makes us parochial or becomes a means for us to compensate for all that is wrong within us. On Feb 11, 6:44 pm, Lee <[email protected]> wrote: > We have, like most things, had a bash at this here before, but I still > have unresovled questions so here goes again. > > I'm not really a patriot, it's not that I hate my country, I certianly > don't, but I don't really love it either. I don't feel anything for > the land in which I have been blessed to be born. > > I don't get patriotism, I simply don't understand how one can feel > pride in the achivments of ones country without also feeling the shame > for the shamefull things, and most patriots that I am aware of > certianly do not exhibit that they feel such shame, whilst the pride > of any patriot is almost overwhelming. I don't undertand this. > > What vaule or merit is there in patriotism? > > In the interest of full disclosure though I must admit that as a > native Londoner, my heart does skip a beat everytime hear a London > accent on the TV, or in a piece of music, yet I have come to quite > detest the city(perhaps this is just my age?). I feel no pride in > being a Londoner, the footie team I support is a Northen english one, > yand I certianly can't explain this heart skipping thing at all. > > What do you think?© -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
